He said: “Chris Columbus had seen David Copperfield and said, “I want to audition this boy.” They went to my parents, and, at the time, the deal was to sign on for -- I think -- six films, all to be done in L.A., and my mum and dad simply said, “That’s too much disruption to his life. That’s not gonna happen.”

"I didn’t know any of that had gone on. And then, maybe three, four months down the line, the deal had changed, and it was gonna be to shoot two films, and they’d both be done in England, and so they said, “Okay, we’ll let him audition.”

"And then it all went from there, really.”

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter Radcliffe, who has been appearing in Broadway musical, said he hasn’t enjoyed becoming a celebrity describing it as “vile” and “ghastly".

"There are, obviously, upsides to it, but I’d say that the upsides, for me, are the upsides that come from my job rather than from the celebrity aspect,” he said.

"I mean, celebrity is horrible -- that’s the truth, is that it’s a ghastly, vile thing.”